So this lovely lady decided to show up early!
It was a really lovely surprise waiting for me after coming back from class and a day in town. Amazon emailed me to say she'd be arriving Wednesday, but... looks like they were a lot faster than that; almost by a week!
The individual molds were a bit of a fun one.
To me the helicopter mold in CW is to
die for and even though I now have
five of them I'm not tired of it in the slightest. It's beautiful, it's intelligent, it's smart and I really wanna get together all of them at some point. So yeah, Stormclash and Skyburst are winners -in my book.
I also really liked the new take on Groove in CW and the mold they gave him so equally I'm happy with Rust Dust. Not as over the moon as other people, but I still like her and I'm totally gonna try out that gun mode later.
Jumpstream was my first time with the Breakdown mold, and... uuuuuggggggghhhhh. I thought people were exaggerating when talking about how bad this mold is, but nope. Nope. Really don't like this one. It's unfortunate because all her new parts are brilliant but the base mold itself was just such a disappointment; I wish we'd gone for a truck for her instead. But because we went Lambo, Jumpstream is now my least favourite CW toy
On a more positive note; before this set, Hot Spot was my favourite individual CW toy (that ladder assembly just makes him!), so I was very happy to get him again as what is honestly the best female transformer design Hasbro has ever put out. I'm serious, I adore Pyra Magna's design and the foot attachments at the back just give her a great silhouette. There's some QC issues at the knees though which prevent me from really liking her but at the same time it... kind of helps give her some height? It's a strange one where it's an error but it has some benefits to it.
But the true winner of this set is without a doubt in my mind Dust Up. I've experienced the Dead End mold already in Streetwise (and
technically in Chromedome due to shared engineering and very similar parts), so I thought I knew all there was to know about it. But man, it's a true mark of a great toy when it is downright impossible to put her in a pose where she does not look cool. She's like some sort of badass bulky ninja - the last two words should never go together but damn if she doesn't make it work! I love her. Brilliant. Perfection. Mwah.
I will admit there have been a few QC issues with them that've annoyed me though; but maybe it's just on my figure. Aside from the aforementioned Pyra Magna; Skyburst's waist joint is
EXTREMELY tight - both locking into standard for robot mode and going out of that standard is an absolute pain and you're more likely to pop off one of the ball joints before you move the waist joint. This is a real shame for arm mode, but it doesn't ruin the figure in my eyes. And while Streetwise had problems keeping his legs together in vehicle mode, Dust Up just... can't. She just can't. Don't even try it, she just can't. Somehow it works for leg mode, but even right out of the box her legs were apart in vehicle mode.
But overall? Very happy with this little group. They're amazing. (aside from Jumpstream. That mold is just so bad >:( )
Victorion, saviour of Coca Cola
And by Solus Prime, if the main event was not a wonderfully pleasant surprise. Full disclosure; going into this I was a bit worried I wouldn't fully enjoy Victorion. But I did figure that the individual bot modes and vehicles were great, and that Sword is amazing so even if I didn't like Victorion herself, I'd at least have a fantastic little gang to expand my female transformers collection.
VICTORION IS MY FAVOURITE CW COMBINER.Now yeah, that's not exactly saying a lot when the only other two I have are Defensor and Bruticus who share a torso with her, but oh my god, from transforming the components to starting the combining phase to combining the sword and posing her I was in love. I was worried about the fat thighs? Not a problem, Defensor and Bruticus already proved to me they're far better in person. I was worried about the colour scheme being a bit gaudy? Again, in-person, it's much better and works out very nicely. I was worried about the hands being laughably tiny and the feet being small and flimsy? Well, as long as you do the helicopter arms and car legs (and please do that, the other figuration is hideous), it's not that way at all. The hands are very nicely proportioned and the feet are bigger than they look in the pictures - and the joints are VERY tight in both the toe hinge and ankle articulation, meaning she stays very well balanced. When Va'al says she's much better in person and in-hand? He's not joking. Victorion is the definition of better in-hand. One more thing, this sword is great. They make wonderful individual weapons with a lot of personality and figuring out how to combiner them was a lot of fun - and I find it difficult to say how the end result could be better, it's an absolutely badass sword.
I'm so glad I jumped on her as a couple minor QC issues and Jumpstream's robot mode aside, she's perfect. Her individual components are wonderful, the new parts - chests, arms, heads, combiner hands and feet - are all extremely well done, her weapon couldn't be better, she's surprisingly well-balanced and proportions... Victorion's a winner. Sorry Bruticus, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I've got a new favourite combiner.
Oh yeah, and no pizza this time
I think Mindwipe is my favorite one of the bunch though I'm trying to figure out a good way to store his weapons in bat mode. The best way I've figured out is jamming it in the back of his head. I'm not a fan of the hole in his butt that it's supposed to go in.Though the behemoth I got this year for my Birthday will be posted in a sister thread shortly...
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